1874
JUSTIN R. WHITING was launched at Langell’s yard at the mouth of the Pine River in St. Clair, Michigan. Her dimensions were 144 feet x 26 feet, 2 inches x 11 feet, 6 inches. Although built to be a self-powered steam barge, she was towed as a regular barge during her first season of operation.
1881
IDA CORNING (two-mast wooden barge, 168 feet, 444 gross tons) was launched in East Saginaw, Michigan. She was built for L.P. Mason & Company of East Saginaw. In 1858, her rig was changed to that of a two-masted schooner. She lasted until abandoned at Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, in 1928.
1940
MAGOG, part of convoy HX-52, was hit by gunfire from U-99, torpedoed and sank stern first. The crew was eventually rescued by the Finnish freighter FIDRA. There are conflicting dates for this event, but many sources agree on this date for the loss of the former CSL canaller.
1945
PAUL H. CARNAHAN was launched as a.) HONEY HILL, a T2-SE-Al World War II tanker, for the U.S. Maritime Commission.
1969
The crew of the W.F. WHITE rescued eight from a foundering pleasure boat off Southeast Shoal, Lake Erie.
1973
The British freighter TRELEVAN visited the Seaway in 1961. It caught fire while pumping oil bilge in the engine room at Halifax as d) BAFFIN BAY and was a total loss. The ship was sold for scrap to Marine Salvage of Port Colborne but resold to Spanish shipbreakers and arrived at Valencia, Spain, under tow for dismantling on October 4, 1973.
1975
The T-2 tanker NASSAU CAY, formerly the IMPERIAL TORONTO, visited the Seaway in 1960. It was converted to a dry bulk carrier in 1961 and was abandoned by the crew, in sinking condition, as f) NICHOLAS C. some 200 miles off Beira, Somalia, and was not seen again. The ship was en route from Sorel to Basrah, Iraq, when it ran out of fresh boiler water and had been drifting.
1979
The Swedish freighter MONICA SMITH was built in 1952 and came to the Great Lakes that year. It returned on a regular basis through 1966 and again as b) MONICA S. in 1967. It sank in the Mediterranean soon after leaving Cartagena, Spain, for Port Said, Egypt, as c) MESSINA II.
1991
Charles Conrad announced he had formed a corporation to purchase the Ludington, Michigan, car ferry operation from Michigan-Wisconsin Transportation Company.
Contributors & Sources
Skip Gillham, Max Hanley, Joe Barr, Dave Swayze, Mike Nicholls, Father Dowling Collection, Ahoy & Farewell II, and the Great Lakes Ships We Remember series from the Marine Historical Society of Detroit.
Compiled by Roger LeLievre.
